


The Heart of Stark

by ProxyZee



Category: Spider-Man (Comicverse), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Burglary, Espionage, Friendship, Gen, Mentor/Protégé, Stocking Mask, Surgery, Suspense, Technobabble
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-09-28 14:30:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20427515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProxyZee/pseuds/ProxyZee
Summary: Olivia Octavius makes an unusual attendance to get closer to a certain industrialist with a vested interest in his achievements.





	1. Chapter 1

A small crowd of people, conversations all around her, a tight black dress to her knees, a glass of sparkling champagne in her hand, and black high heel shoes on her sheer stockinged feet. Olivia Octavious looked around and could not help but feel that she was quite out of place in this party. Not just any party: A high-class party consisting of mostly corporate executive guests as well as well-regarded inventors including herself. She should feel within her element, but all she could see was competition and prying eyes she did not wish to feel like having on her right now. She wasn't used to coming out to social gatherings like this.

She likely would not have if it did not mean she got to see the impressive home of Tony Stark. A man she was very much interested in. His mind at least. So, she followed the usual social protocol of wearing the appropriate dress code, and drinking. Apart from the mingling part of course. She understood that drinking alone while standing alone among the small, separated groups of suits, tuxedos, and dresses was not a good look for this event, but there was only one man she had an interest in speaking to, and, so far, he has not announced himself yet. So, she takes a small sip from her glass while sighing in boredom.

"Dr. Octavius! How long has it been?"

Olivia fought the urge to roll her eyes when the familiar, booming voice of Wilson Fisk was directed to her. The large, wall-like man approached her with a smile he practiced for years. He holds out his hand that, to her eyes, looked to be seven times bigger than her own. Awkwardly, she shook it as she looked to his hairless head that seemed to glow from the reflection of the ceiling lights. Olivia politely smiles to him with all the effort she could muster, and politely greets him.

"Mr. Fisk, pleasure meeting you here."

He chuckled humorously.

"Oh, everyone ends up meeting me here. Especially in a room this small."

Olivia laughed. At first, she was not certain if that was a good move, but his smile, as well as the fact that he himself made the joke, was enough for her.

"Well, I can hardly imagine why. I don't recall you saying you'd make an appearance."

"I scarcely wonder myself. Joking aside, I'm here because I have something I wish to discuss with you."

Olivia's smile turned into a straight line as she noted the serious look he was giving her. He now wanted to talk business. She nodded with tense expectancy.

"I trust you had your gander around the house? This may be a ridiculous question but-"

Olivia noticed Wilson's particular attention to her very large, long and thick hair barely kept straight with a black hairband.

"-you understand why I don't completely have confidence in your ability to stay unnoticed?"

Olivia sighs with suppressed frustration.

"It's easier to go unnoticed if you stay quiet, Mr. Fisk. I still have regular proportions, after all."

He had a hearty chuckle as he grinned.

"Quite so. Still, I sincerely hope you had no complications?"

She gave a brief glance to both sides of the room before looking back to the large-framed imposing man.

"No odd looks when I left. Much of this place is empty. I haven't run into Stark."

"Good," said Wilson as he tugged on the collar lapels of his black dinner jacket.

"And his security?"

Olivia smirked as she thought of her plan for later in the night. Once the party has died.

"Nothing I can't handle."

"Then I expect things to go smoothly. As far as preparation is concerned anyway."

The sound of clinking glass draws their attention, as well as the attention of everyone else in the room to a suited, smiling, and finger-clicking Tony Stark as he stood at the top of a small set of leading to the carpeted ground floor where the guests were. By his side was the redheaded, elegantly dressed in black, and beautiful Pepper Potts with a smile on her red painted lips. Smaller than her husband's. He was often the one who enjoyed putting on a show after all.

"Ladies and gentlemen. If you would please try and not get too drunk tonight..."

Laughter from several gues spread throughout the room. Even from Wilson. Olivia wasn't certain if they were all genuine.

"...I'm sure you're already aware of the breakthrough I made in the armour. Now, I'm sure you're wondering exactly what kind of breakthrough I'm talking about. Well, that's why you're all here. To make it that much more special."

Olivia rolled her eyes. She quietly muttered to Wilson.

"Does he have to celebrate every time he gets an upgrade?"

"Why so dour? You declined all his previous invitations."

"Now I have more reason to decline the next."

Her attention was snow more focused on Stark again as he continued to narrate.

"I, as you all know, like to put on a suit of armour, and save the world on occasion. Mostly, the city. More than a few times I almost died doing it, and a couple of times I was actually dead before, well..."

He taps on his chest a little.

"...this lifesaver gave my heart the kick it needed to keep me going. A couple of close calls too many. So, I decided that maybe my armour needed something more. Another layer if you will. It took about half a year, but here it is."

He picks up a remote control from the wooden, white-painted surface of the stair rail to his side, and pushes a button on it. Activating a holographic presentation from a circular generator at one end of the room in front of the large windows showing the night sky, and ocean. A blue light emerged from the surface of the generator to present a still hologram of the immediately recognizable Iron Man suit as a beam of light emerges from the chest piece, and forms an oval-shaped light shield around the armour.

"In case you're wondering what that is: it's light. Hard light in fact. The electromagnet has been outfitted with a photon processor. The chest piece can now absorb photons, basically light, and process those particles into something more productive. Like an energy shield from the armour."

Wilson called out to Tony with a curious, and very intrigued look at the hologram.

"Impenetrable?"

Tony gave Wilson a polite smile. An almost convincing one to Olivia's observation.

"Well, not quite. Still, it can take a lot. Something like an anti-tank rocket."

Wilson coughed a little as he tugged on his collar. Tony continued to speak without looking to Wilson.

"That's something I haven't quite worked out yet. It's not impenetrable, but after all the trials involving a lot of explosions, let's say. I can guarantee very little of what humanity has achieved up to this point can dent it."

"Have you found anything that could penetrate it?" asked one suited man as he twirled the champagne in his glass with a curious expression. Tony breathlessly chuckled at his question.

"Well, obviously that's a secret. Any other questions?"

One guest with a ring on each finger and thumb raised his hand.

"Is there any particular supercriminal that could be a threat to this upgrade?"

Tony chuckles to himself. A little nervously, Olivia noted.

"Well, I hope not."

He kept getting questions. mainly about Iron Man, and little about the actual device he presented. Once he got tired of answering the hardly relevant, he held up his glass with a smile.

"Okay. I think I'm ready to get back to my drink now."

The room filled with gentle, polite laughter as Tony walked down the stairs with Pepper following beside him. Olivia turned away to return to acting as just another guest in the room, but the sound of Tony's enthusiastic, jovial voice bearing her name kept her from turning her head all the way.

"Ah! Dr. Octavius. A surprise that you're here. A great one, of course."

She looks to the tall, dark-haired, handsome, and iconically mustached Tony Stark with a polite smile. She shakes his hand as he approaches her while Wilson slowly backs away from the oncoming conversation to find someone else within his realm of influence to speak with.

"Mr. Stark! Nice of you to meet me."

"Well, the woman who made such progress in the world of prosthetics, and invented the cooling bomb is always worth someone's attention, right?"

Olivia graciously smiled as she let go of his hand. To assist in her confidence, she decided to take a drink from her glass while hoping it wouldn't be seen as untoward

"You're no slouch yourself, Mr. Stark."

He chuckled humorously as Pepper looked around the room. Olivia guessed it was to make sure no one would try and get Tony's attention while he was busy getting someone else's.

"Well, being Iron Man and, seemingly, least of all being the head of Stark Industries does get me a lot of pats on the back, but I felt like giving someone else a pat for once. Just as I plan on doing with any other poor sap I happen to admire."

Olivia chuckled while looking to Wilson. Once she saw that he was happily discussing with the mayor and a couple of what she recognized as senators about what she presumed to be business, she looked back to Tony. Now eager to direct his attention toward someone else for his aforementioned "pats."

"I believe I saw Dr. Warren around here. He deserves one for his genetic splicing progress."

Tony chuckles while Pepper looks back to Olivia with a smile.

"Well, I have some questions regarding the morals of that particular topic, but for his dedication alone, perhaps he deserves it. I do have something to ask you first.

"Oh?" exclaimed Olivia as she looks to him with some interest. Finally, Pepper begins to speak with a hopeful grin.

"We have an opening in our chief of engineering after, well, Dr. Schultz, you know."

Olivia nodded as it became obvious to her what it was they were getting at.

"You're offering it to me? Even though I already have a position with Alchemax? A satisfactory one, I may add."

Tony gives a brief glance to Wilson Fisk with a small grimace before he turns back to Olivia with a sigh.

"Well, how could I put this delicately? I'm sure you could do better than working for a man like Fisk."

Olivia couldn't think of what else to do other than do her job. Which included protecting the image of her boss.

"I know of the alleged Kingpin moniker Wilson has Mr. Stark. I can safely say from experience that Mr. Fisk is far too much of a philanthropist to be that much of a reprehensible human being.

Tony nods. Olivia could tell it was just out of politeness.

"Perhaps. Don't you think the evidence put forth in his past trial appearances were a little interesting?"

Olivia shakes her head.

"Just because he's had past relationships with certain supercriminals doesn't mean he worked with them, Mr. Stark."

Tony chuckled awkwardly as lines began to appear on his face.

"Well, surely you think the whole witnesses retracting their statements thing is a little strange?"

Olivia gave him a curt, almost patronizing cough in response.

"I'm afraid witnesses retracting their statements isn't enough, Mr. Stark. Fisk has made plenty of enemies who'd love nothing more than to tear him and his ambitions down regardless of whether they are benevolent ambitions or not. I've heard too many unfounded claims such as yours to heed them."

Tony smiled. Opposite to Pepper who had a frown.

"Well, if his "alleged" moonlighting doesn't convince you, then perhaps something more personally beneficial to you may be more convincing."

"I'm perfectly happy with my salary, Mr. Stark."

He smiled. To the point of offending her with how clear it was that he was so sure of himself.

"Not even if it means getting to work with my tech? I may even share something with you. Confidential level."

She smiles politely before letting him down as gently as she could.

"I'm flattered, but Mr. Fisk needs all the help he can get. You have more than enough willing brains out there to pick at. If you'll excuse me."

Olivia walks away as Pepper crosses her arms with a wry smirk.

"Finally, a woman you can't woo."

Tony looks to her with a smile as charming as he could make it with a breathless chuckle.

"I wasn't!"

She rolls her eyes as he continues to try, and convince her that he had no intention of doing what she presumed while Olivia stepped toward Wilson Fisk. Once he noticed the wild-haired, bespectacled woman approaching he raises a hand to the suited politicians with a smile.

"Excuse me," he said as he left the small group to stand in front of her with an expecting look.

"Well? What did he want?"

"To work for him. Even offered to le the into some of his secrets. Probably something else."

Fik chuckled as he humorously looks to the mingling Tony as he speaks to another suited guest.

"Well, obviously, that's too long for my liking."

Olivia smirks as she nods.

"Of course, sir. Whatever he was willing to share I'll have more of by tonight."

"You better," he said with emphasized seriousness as he looked down at her. All Olivia could do was smile confidently.

"Like I said: nothing I can't handle."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia makes a very late night visit after Tony's party.

Olivia often enjoyed her bike rides regardless of the time of day, but she had a particular fondness for the evenings. Something about the cold air gently breezing against her skin and large, thick hair gave a soft massage to her mind with the effect of more clear thought. Though that wasn't the feeling she was getting with this particular late-night bicycle ride through the mostly clear wood path with long lines of pine trees looming over her at each side. Her heart raced a little as she thought about how she was going to enact on her plan. It seemed that even with her full confidence in its success, she always considered the slim possibility of something going awry however unlikely that was.

Instead of the evening dress, she wore at the party a mere few hours earlier: she wore a dark blue tracksuit over her body with a simple black shirt underneath. She wore dark laced sneakers at her feet, and a large black backpack that made her bike riding feel just a little more strenuous. Gone were her glasses for tonight. She felt that they ould only get in the way with the additional choice of clothing she has yet to put on. Her bike trek through the dark, intimidating woodland ended when she noticed the familiar sight of Tony Stark's large modern house on the right side. She stops just behind a cliff edge where the ocean could be seen over a seemingly endless horizon. The only thing making the ocean even slightly visible were the many clusters of stars reflecting from it. At least she could hear the gentle, relaxing waves even without much light to see, but she decided to cut her pleasant listening short. She had a job to do.

Olivia left her bike on the cliff edge before she made her way to the grounds through a run into the trees at the right side, it only took a few seconds for her to find herself standing at the grounds of the Stark house. She left the trees behind her as she approached the large cliffside mansion with all its windows, and a disc-shaped roof. She noticed that there were no lights at all within it. She smiled to herself as she reaches into the pocket of her pants, and pulls out a pair of wrist-length rubber surgical gloves. Slowly, she stretches them over the sleeves of her tracksuit jacket as she keeps her focus on the manor.

Next, she crouches down while removing the backpack away from herself before placing it on the soft, recently cut grass. She pulls the zipper at the top, and takes out a small metallic ball with four spindly legs attached to it. Carefully, she sets it on the ground as if she was taking the extra caution to make sure it did not suffer any damage. It made a good amount of sense to her as she had only brought one of these. Same with the remote control she took from the backpack. It was a black device she could hold in both hands. All it had and all it needed was a single screen that she activates with a push of a button at the far right corner atop the blocky frame.

As soon as a camera feed of the manor came onto the screen, the ball drone rose up as it's legs extended. With a gentle touch of the upward arrow in white with her gloved finger, the drone slinked forward. She smiled at both the success of its activation, and the odd cuteness factor it had in its small size, and vulnerable appearance. With the digital arrows amongst the other virtual buttons on the screen, she navigated the little bot toward the manor.

It scuttled along on the lawn before climbing up the stone rail of the landing with its sharp points at the bottom of its legs. Though it was very likely that any occupant inside would be asleep, Olivia made sure to avoid the surveillance cameras outfitted along the manor walls out of a nagging sense of caution. She recalled her fresh air seeking walks along the manor's outside for a calming search of any weaknesses she could exploit, and there was one she recalled quite clearly. It did not take long for her to find it with a motion to aim the bot's camera up toward the small, thin vent a hamster could barely fit through. Not too big for her bot though as she soon proved herself after getting it to remove screw after screw with two of its legs it used to stick into the bolts before roughly pulling them out.

When it entered the shaft, Olivia felt greatly nervous once the clanging the bot made with its movements had started. She felt her heart get a little faster as the bot slowly moved within the metallic narrow space. She made it go as slow as she felt patient enough for while hoping the paused clang wouldn't be loud enough to awaken anyone inside. After a few minutes of painstakingly stagnant crawling, Olivia directed the bot toward a right side passage to find another vent much to her relief. She kept up the sluggish movement while trying to keep her thoughts focused on the fact that she won't have to stay crouched out here for much longer.

Once the bot got to the vent grid, she selected a feature on the screen that enabled her to move just one of the front legs of the bot. Slowly it raised it up before a sharp pointed black cable extended from the leg's tip. It slithered its way through a gap before working on pulling away from the bolts at all four corners just as the bot did before. When she saw the grid fall away from her feed, she slowly moved the bot out of the vent, and onto the wall.

Olivia thought back to her exploration of the manor for a particular room she expected to be there after she had noticed the security cameras. She could not say that she had found it, but what she did find were a couple of locked doors she suspected to lead to just what she was looking for. The bot slowly crawls up the wall to the ceiling, and stays out of sight of the interior surveillance cameras as it scuttled along. Olivia could feel slight wetness on her forehead. She took slow, deep breaths as she narrowly moves the bot just behind one camera while making sure to keep it as close to dark corners as she could get it. Once she got to a part of the room where there was no window for the light of the stars to shine through, she turned on the night vision version of the feed while the bot silently alters its camera mode.

The search was brief once she recognized a hallway, and, eventually, a door she knew to be one of the locked doors. Seeing that there were no cameras to be concerned about nearby, she confidently moves the bot to crawl up to the keyhole of the door. The bot faced the lock as it extended a long pick from an opening slot in its body into the lock before the pick moved up and down in a repeating motion. A couple of minutes had past by the time she heard the click through the small microphone. She moved the bot to hop onto the handle of the door to hook its two front legs over it. Through the feed, she could see the door get closer while her view seemed to ger farther back at the same time.

She smiled to herself now that she was getting close to finishing with this part of the mission. The bot drops to the floor and scuttles into what she soon recognized to be a surveillance room. Her night vision feed presented the sight of a desk with a single computer, and several flat-screened monitors at the wall above it. All currently showing footage of the various locations around the manor inside and outside. She turns the bot to face both sides of the room only to find little else but walls. She directs it towards the computer, and moves it up the desk to stand in front of the computer tower. With a touch of her finger, she makes the boot shoot out a USB cable from itself, and into the vacant USB port.

With a cold sweat, she hacks into the computer by installing software that worked on flooding the computer with so much worthless data she forced a crash into the surveillance system. When she noticed the light on the power button disappear, she let out a deep sigh of relief before she moved the bot out of the room to find the next obstacle in her path with full confidence of being undetected now that the cameras were out of the way. The bot scuttled to the foyer where it crawled up toward the alarm panel where it pried away from the panel, and closely observed the wires within. With the points of the bot's legs that opened to become more like pincers, she re-wired the inner workings of the alarm until she was certain that no forced entry would break the circuit.

She moves the bot down to the floor before she de-activates it from the same push of the button she used to bring it to movement. Olivia placed the controller back into her backpack before putting it back over her shoulders. She looked ahead to the manor before taking a deep breath, and quickly approaching the building with a run in her crouch. The large haired woman was a silent shadow if seen from a distance, and knowing that gave her a confident smile. Quickly, yet, quietly she moves up the stone steps of the landing, and stands up as she approaches the glass-paned door. Gently, she presses her back against it and reaches into her pocket for her mask: a sheer nude lace hem stocking. Olivia shakes it to unfold before slowly pulling the garment over here head and hair. She could feel her breath getting a little more restricted, and her face getting tightly squeezed by the sheer nylon as her thick, voluminous hair became tightly compressed. She stretched out the lace hem of the stocking a little at her neck, before she turns to remove her back from the door.

From her pocket, she took out a single pin she slowly inserted into the lock while keeping her other rubber-gloved hand on the handle for a more steady exploration of the lock she picked and prodded with the sharp pin. As she picked, she could feel herself sweating a little more on her face, hands, and under her shoulders. Within a little more than two minutes, she managed to move up all the pins inside, and unlock the door for herself. Not having to worry about any alarms blaring or silent. She slowly closes the door behind her before she removes her sneakers, and moves to the foyer where the bot still stood. She happily picks it up, and gently caresses it with a small smile behind the mask.

"You are such a good little bot. I'm so proud of you." she whispered before placing it back into the backpack as delicately as she could before zipping it closed. With a deep inhale, she slowly begins to walk up the stairs at the wall in her stocking feet. Her steps were mute as she got further up until she got to the second floor. Carefully, she glanced around the spacious landing to see two corridors at either side she could use. While gently biting her lip, she decides to explore the left corridor first. The first couple of doors did not lead her to much apart from a pool table room, and an arcade room that looked like it had been plucked straight from the mid-eighties. The latter gave her an eye roll before she took to opening the third door at the far end of the corridor. Instantly, she saw that she had found what she was looking for.

The sight of a wide, unobscured window followed by the view of the king-sized bed with two humanoid shapes she could make out through the darkness under the sheets. The room was a little brightened up by the star lights outside. A little more convenient for her sight. While cautiously approaching the bed, she looked to the floor for a brief glance only to find that the room wasn't quite as cluttered as she thought it would be. In fact: it was very clean. Much to her surprise considering Tony Stark's work hard and play hard reputation. Her guess was Pepper who she kept her focus on as she got closer toward the bed. Kneeling down, she takes a syringe from her pocket. Slowly, she unscrews the plastic cap, and gently places a gloved hand over the slumbering Pepper's mouth as she gently injects a sedative into a neck vein. For the next few hours: Olivia knew that there would be no interruption from her.

She then crept to Tony's side of the bed with a slow, deliberate walk as she never let her sight away from him. As if she was expecting him to react in some way, but he never did. He still quietly slept away his night. She smiled in achievement, though she was just about to get started on the difficult part. From her pocket: she took out a vaccine bottle, and drained some of its clear fluid out with the syringe before she slowly pulls the bedsheet away from both Tony and Pepper. She kneels down and takes the resting hero's arm into her hand.

With great, sensitive care: the needle went in. As it did: Tony had slowly begun to stir. Olivia's eyes dart up from the arm to his face as he groans.

"Wh-what?"

Her heart raced, but she doubted it was going as much as his was. She reacted quickly in the most soothing way she could think of that immediately came to mind.

"Shhh. I need you to stay still, Mr. Stark," she said in an oddly pleasant, gentle tone despite the situation that Tony could only think of as nightmarish. He wasn't convinced that this was entirely real.

"Who? W-what? What is this?"

"Shhhh. Just stay calm. It's a bad dream."

Tony moved his head to the side to see the shadowy figure of Olivia. Not realizing that what he thought was a large, inhuman bulbous head was just, mostly, her compressed stocking covered hair. He mumbles as he tries to speak, but the sudden onset of, perhaps, the heaviest fatigue he felt in his life flooded his senses. As his wounded heart raced, he tried to think of a method to escape this predicament. When he realized that this was starting to feel a little too tangible to be a dream.

Olivia braced herself for any kind of sudden movement from him. Including a fist to her head, but there was nothing. She smirked. Clearly, her sedative was working. Tony continued to mumble as his eyelids got heavier. Slowly, his eyes had closed again. Until he went limp, and his arm fell from Olivia's grasp. She pocketed the syringe and took something else out of her other pocket: a surgical kit kept wrapped in a dark blue folding cloth that she slowly unfolded on the bed while Tony went deeply into unconsciousness.

From the selection of sharp and healing tools: she had she decided on using a pair of scissors to cut away the obscuring black shirt Tony wore. Slowly, she trailed up the scissors from the hemline of his shirt with snip after snip until she had torn it all away from his abdomen. The sight of his electromagnet on the chest gave her a brief pause to admire it before she selected a long, shining scalpel toward the circular metal component with shaking concentration. With a gentle touch, she scans the texture of the reactor with her gloved fingers until she finds a little raised, circular bump at the side that she was certain was not on the other side of the reactor. With the great curiosity of a scientist, she slowly prodded at it before prying it off with the scalpel.

Upon closer inspection: she could see a small, dark hole. She places the scalpel to the side and takes a long, thin rod from the kit. Slowly, she lowers it inside and examines the interior with gentle probing. Metallic walls were what she found as the quiet clanging indicated as well as some wires. But what had really enlarged her curious nature was the dim glow of light inside. Olivia smiled to herself as she gently bit her lip. She guessed that this was the upgrade he had so proudly revealed.

The smile was gone when she found that the source of the light was protected by a surface of some kind. Likely a transparent plastic glass. She sighed to herself before looking to the flesh surrounding the electromagnet. Gently, she runs her finger down the skin before sighing. Though she had thought that it could come to this, that's why she brought the gloves, after all, she still had hoped it would be easier. Her steady hand picked up the scalpel before she positioned it over the rim of the reactor, and slowly dragged it across as her tongue nervously pushed against the sheer nylon over her mouth.

As she slowly dug into him, she kept alternating her focus between the surgery, and Tony Stark's face. He was completely still throughout the opening, digging, bleeding, and examining. A painless process that stopped for a moment when Olivia felt a small, short cylinder shape that seemed particularly loose, she pulled on it, and realized that she was pulling apart a few wires that kept it in place. She extracts her gloved hand wet with blood from it. Though it lacked light, she could tell from the dark, shimmering dome at the top that it used to have a light. She smiled with realization. This is the very component she needed. Briefly, she admired its twinkling in the starlight before she place sits within her pocket, and she looks back to Stark with a sudden feeling of urgency. She wasn't intending on leaving too much of a mess behind, and certainly not a corpse.

Luckily, for him. He was unaware of it all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia returns home from the scene of the crime, and puts on a front.

She was certain she heard the pounding of her own heart as she raced away from the manor toward the woods. The clear, uncluttered path ahead of her was what Olivia kept her attention on while keeping any thought of potential witnesses or security breaches she missed at the back of her mind. Her footsteps underneath her were much less crunching when she stepped onto the clear, smooth path. She looked around as if she was expecting someone or something to be near her. But there was not a single sight of anything outright alarming. She looks to her bike at the end of the cliff glimmering in the light of the stars as she labouredly breathed. Her stocking being sucked in and pushed out at her mouth in sync with her heavy breaths.

She rushes to pull the bloodied latex gloves off her hands before she throws them over the cliff. She watches the wind carry them away from the edge before they slowly descend down to the near pitch-black ocean while still going forward. Next, she grips the lacey hem of her stocking and pulls it up over her head. Once she saw the light nude shade over her sight disappearing and felt her hair uncurling and returning to its previous shape excepting a few more unkempt spots. She shakes her head in relief before pocketing the stocking into her jacket. She climbs up on the bike, and hurriedly pedals away from the cliff and down the path while taking deep breaths to collect herself.

During her trek through the woods, and, eventually, in the streets, she took all the obscure paths she knew of. Ones she often took to keep away from interaction when it suited her. She tried to enjoy the slight cooling breeze while leaving any thought of the aftermath, and the risks she knew to come with it at the back of her mind. Her venture back home felt like the shortest trip back she had ever taken. She had not realized she had moved so fast. She looks to the two storey building she resided in: a waterfront based building far more modest than Stark's manor. It was a two storey building built from mahogany wood with a balcony stretching out over the waterfront. Seeing it made her rush to park the bike in the adjoining garage after she opened it with a remote from her pocket.

She enters her lounge room through the small corridor after leaving the garage, and turns on the light with a flip of a switch. She takes in the sight of her beige painted, mostly plainly decorated room apart from a couple of portraits depicting distant shores on small islands, an antique model ship in a bottle atop a shelf cabinet, and a gramophone resting on top of a small, round table against a wall. She looks to her fireplace and approaches it with a hand in her pocket. She takes out her stocking and throws it to the logs while picking up a bottle of accelerant from the top. She douses the stocking and logs with it before taking a box of matches from the same place, and proceeds to watch the flames grow after tossing away one lit match.

For a moment she watches the stocking erode away in the flames as the logs turned black. She pokes at the blaze until the garment had almost completely burned away. Satisfied, she stands up and walks toward her glass coffee table that stood in front of the pillow covered sofa, and lays her backpack onto it. She zips it open and reaches inside to take out her only spoil: the light emitter from Tony's arc reactor. She closely observes the blood-covered device as she brings it close to her face. She smiled excitedly with a growing impatience to study it under proper conditions. Conditions she did not hold here.

For now, she would settle for a naked eye observation of Stark's upgrade. With waning patience.

"Dr. Octavius?"

She turns away from the microscope at her polished white desk with great annoyance until she sees the familiar sight of a tall young man with pale skin, gentle baby blue eyes, a polite smile, and striking blonde hair. He wore a simple white shirt, blue jeans, sneakers, and, like her, a white lab coat. She smiled at him while adjusting her circular framed glasses.

"Peter! You're early."

Sheepishly, he rubs the back of his head.

"I had an earlier night last night. Lucky me."

She smiles at him happily.

"Hopefully, you'll make it a habit."

She walks toward the counter behind him while he looks to the microscope she had recently used.

"Whatcha lookin' at?"

Nonchalantly, she responds as she carefully picks up a pale, robotic finger from the counter before looking to a fingerless and thumbless robotic hand beside it.

"Just some spinal tissue."

Peter checks the microscope to find a close-up image of a pink mass of cells. The patterns were a familiar sight to him.

"Still trying to make it grow?"

She laughs while screwing the finger into the hand.

"No. Just making some repairs."

To Peter's observation: he could see that it mostly resembles what the healthy kind of tissue should look like apart from a few breaks in the cell connections. He smiled at the sight of her work.

"Making miracles happen as usual."

"Hardly. I'm just helping push science forward."

He scoffs while continuing to admire the work done on the tissue.

"I consider what it's capable of now to be a miracle."

Olivia busies herself with taking additional fingers and a thumb from a drawer filled with them while she converses with him over his daily life. Something she always knew to be quite a bit more interesting than her own.

"I hope you're not still working at the Bugle."

Quietly, he sighed.

"It's still just three days a week."

She frowns as she turns with a sigh to look at his back with an hand on her hip.

"Three days you could be using to help me ake the world a better place."

He shyly laughed as he keeps observing the tissue while adjusting the zoom dial.

"You really need my help?"

"I could use the legacy a potential apprentice brings."

Again he laughs, but with a little more volume and amusement.

"Maybe if I ever move out of my Aunt's."

Olivia smiles with amusement at the reminder that this grown man and assistant is still residing in the house he was raised in, and seemingly, is still being raised in.

“As sweet as she is, you are getting to the point where you have a life of your own to take care of. Something working full-time here would help you with.”

Peter turns away from the microscope and looks to her with a sheepish grin while rubbing the back of his head. She crosses her arms with a raised brow. Already anticipating an excuse.

“Well, I’m not exactly used to taking on such big risks in my life, Doctor. As much of an honor, it is to be in this lab giving you a helping hand I think I’m happy enough being with Aunt May and juggling two part-time jobs. She needs me there anyway.”

“I recall when I had ambition like yours until I made my own rocket. Back in fifth grade.”

The blonde assistant chuckles to himself. He pockets his hands as he looks to Olivia with a smile, yet a nervous, uncertain leam in his pale blue eyes.

“Well, not everyone’s so brilliant as to become an inventor that young, and not everyone has an aging aunt to take care of.”

Olivia sighs before gently nodding. She looks to the prosthetic hand and holds it up in front of her with a pleading frown.

“But, Peter. Think of all the good you could do.”

He smiles. In an affected way.

"I like to think helping you is all the charity I can give."

Seeing that he wasn't budging on his stance, she sighs before nodding.

"Well, for now maybe. I hope you're absorbing everything you can here until bigger things come along."

"How could I not?" he said with a coy smile.

A muffled ringtone along with a low vibration in his coat pocket alerted both him and Olivia. He takes out the phone as it plays a power metal rendition of the Spider-Man theme. He places it to his ear with an awkward grin as she rolls her eyes.

"Hello? I'm at the lab right now. Really? If it's serious I can try to show up."

He gives Olivia a pleading look with eyes as wide as he could make them. She shakes her head with a quiet, defeated sigh.

"Give him my best wishes. Okay, bye."

He ends the call before pocketing the phone. Sheepishly, he looks to the doctor.

"Go ahead. But try to get back before the workday ends."

He walks to the door while giving her a coy smile.

"I'm so sorry, doc. It's just a short visit. I promise."

She waves her hand in a motion beckoning for him to make his leave.

"Just hurry before I think more about it."

As he leaves the lab in a hurry, she walks toward the door, and sees him quickly pacing down the hall. With a smile, she walks toward a cabinet, and reaches her hand at the top to take a hidden compact container. She opens the lid and looks inside to find the light converter within.

"Looks like I get to have fun with you sooner, little guy."


End file.
